I have been wondering whether many at LAC will be thrilled about our topic this weekend! We'll be talking about grumbling. How many times have you gone to church saying, "I hope I hear a sermon on complaining today"? But, according to the Bible, the human inclination toward complaining is something we all should expect to struggle with as we walk through the wilderness of life. Since that's true, we should open our hearts to hear what God has to say to us. Also, I think that this is a good time to speak about the topic—because there doesn't seem to be a lot of grumbling right now here at LAC. It's good to talk about challenging things while we're experiencing good times—so that's what we'll do.
There is no better part of the Bible to teach us about grumbling than the text we come to this weekend, Exodus 15:22–17:7. The Israelites had made it out of slavery and across the Red Sea. All of their doubts, the Egyptian armies, and the Red Sea itself hadn't stopped them. We pick them up in 15:22 headed for a new land flowing with milk and honey. We might think that they would be upbeat: No complaining among these blessed people! Or, we might expect Moses to cast the story in this, his second book, in the most-positive light possible and cover up their grumbling. But no; almost without pausing for breath, Moses plunges us into a sad reality.
Within just a few days after one of the greatest victories in history, we find the victorious Israelites grumbling and longing to be slaves again in Egypt. It's hard for some to imagine. On three specific occasions in our passage, we read that the Israelites complained about their new lot in life. Again and again in the 40 years that followed, God's people grumbled. At one point, they even threatened to elect another leader to escort them back into Pharaoh's arms.
Since the New Testament describes the work of Christ and our journey toward becoming complete in Christ in terms of the Exodus story, we should stop this week to see whether God has something to say to us about this trait of fallen humanity. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his Life Together,
"We, too, pass through the Red Sea and through the desert heading toward our promised land. Like Israel, we fall into doubt and unbelief. Then, through punishment and repentance, we experience God's help and faithfulness. All this is not biblical reverie or trivia. It is holy, godly reality. God's Word takes our existence and sets us down in the midst of the holy history of how God dealt with his people on earth. We see how God dealt with his people. And we now know how he deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace."
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor